Welcome
to the St. Olaf Summer Research Page!

Each
summer, St. Olaf science students and faculty engage in a
wide range of research for 10 weeks, and this research is made
possible through grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Merck
Foundation. St. Olaf College provides summer housing for the students.
The 10 weeks begins and ends with student research talks and posters,
and many of the students go on to present their results at national
and regional meetings.

Research Abstracts

Last
summer, the Summer Research Program included over 60 students
and 25 faculty from the Art, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies Mathematics, Physics,
and Psychology Departments and associated interdisciplinary programs.

Student
research occurs during the school year and is increasingly incorporated
into classes. However, summer research allows students to focus
solely on research, allowing them to learn the rigour, creativity,
and joy of discovery that comes from scientific research. In the
words of the students:

Opened
my eyes to all the possibilities for research. Surprised me
to find that things went so slowly and quickly at the same
time

Gave me more of a "real world" feeling; I could
actually see how the science I learned applied in real life

You can never really be done with your research - no definite
final results

Science
isn't so much about doing one completely self-contained experiment